Warning: Another Catholic Headed To Supreme Court

Brett Kavanaugh once was an altar boy. He now volunteers as a lector in his parish. He serves meals to the homeless, dishing out food alongside a priest. And Kavanaugh coaches his daughter’s Catholic Youth Organization basketball team.

Sounds untrustworthy.

That there is concern about Kavanaugh – President Donald Trump’s second nomination to the federal Supreme Court – is not alarming. There was going to be concern because it was Trump doing the nominating. Media outlets were advertising a thorough analysis of the “controversial” selection … well before the announcement was made.

The fact that Kavanaugh is Catholic adds a little spice because Kavanaugh appears to be one of those rare birds – a Catholic who actually practices his Catholicism. This is concerning to the secularist because our culture doesn’t mind when leaders say they are religious, as long as it’s meaningless; religion narrowly defined as a one-hour-a-week contract with no other requirements.

But religion, what we call the relationship between God (a.k.a. The Creator) and us (a.k.a. the created), is supposed to affect how we live. But if you attempt to live the way your Creator wants you to, you might be accused of being a person in which “the dogma lives loudly.”

Those famous words came courtesy of U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein in her grilling last September of Amy Coney Barrett, during Barrett’s confirmation hearing for the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. Barrett, a practicing Catholic, was confirmed anyway.

Barrett was also a finalist for the nomination that went to Kavanaugh. When Barrett’s name was being floated, the anti-Catholic bigotry surfaced again. Barrett, it was reported, was a member of a cult called People of Praise. Turns out the group is a community committed to living out Gospel values. How controversial.

Again, the concern was that Barrett was someone who might take her Catholic faith seriously. It is interesting that one of the other senators grilling Barrett last September was Dick Durbin, a Catholic who does not follow his Church’s teaching.

Durbin is the kind of Catholic more easily accepted in a secular world.

When Kavanaugh was nominated, CNN ran a story on its web site headlined “Why Do Catholics Hold A Strong Majority on the Supreme Court?” It mentions that Kavanaugh would make six justices with a Catholic background. (That includes both Neil Gorsuch and Sonia Sotomayor, who were raised Catholic. Gorsuch now attends Episcopal churches while Sotomayor is referred to as a “cultural Catholic,” which appears to be a polite way of saying lapsed.)

Are so many Catholics a problem? The CNN article concludes that “a justice’s religion does not, nor should it, matter. But it is certainly a curiosity …”

In other words: This is a non-story, but we couldn’t help ourselves.

If confirmed, Kavanaugh will replace another Catholic, Anthony Kennedy. No worries that the dogma lived loudly within Kennedy. In the 1992 case of Planned Parenthood vs. Casey, when Kennedy helped reinforce abortion rights, he authored the infamous line:

“At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.”

With that arguable interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment, Kennedy established a new religion – YOU are the creator.

“Defining one’s own concept of existence” is also known as extreme relativism — i.e., there is no truth. That’s bad law.

The biggest misconception about those who oppose abortion is that it’s a religious issue. It more than that. It is an issue of life. In law, the protection of life is at the forefront.

The Catholic Church has always been adamant about this argument – not only because of faith, but of reason. Scientific advances confirm that unborn babies are human life with their own DNA. Human hearts begin beating less than three weeks after conception. Ultrasound imagery shows a baby growing.

Abortion ends that baby’s life. That cannot be argued, and I would expect any jurist, regardless of religion, to see that.

If Kavanaugh is confirmed to the Supreme Court, pro-abortion laws may be weakened in this country – not because Kavanaugh is researching the Catholic Catechism but, rather, the U.S. Constitution.

Kevin Thomas is a writer and former teacher, living with his wife and children in Standish, Maine.